Best Books on Emerging-Missional Church
Kevin Cawley has a Readers Guide for Missional Church. Good list and great books. Anyone who writes a blog series on the emerging church who does not read a few of these good books on the missional church should be slapped silly with their keyboard. Shaping of Things to Come by Hirsch and Frost (blogged it here) is a good start . . wait . . that one is not on Kevin's Readers Guide . . but it should be.
I was asked by someone recently for a list of essential books written recently on the emerging church. I still think the best stuff is online in blog form, articles and PDF's but for the book reading population, here are is my choice:
From Australia - Shaping of Things to Come, Alan Hirsch and Mike Frost
From New Zealand - Out of Bounds Church, Steve Taylor
From UK - The Complex Christ, by Kester Brewin
From USA - Emerging Churches, by Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs
From Germany - Houses That Change the World, by Wolfgang Simson
From Canada ? . . . You tell me.
Anything on what is happening in African contexts? Be it in blog, book, or article form? I've been hunting around for a while and haven't come up with much which led me to wonder if its off the radar, not considered "emerging," or ignored for more historically nefarious reasons? I'd be curious to hear your take?
Posted by: Jon | December 17, 2005 at 06:58 PM
Maybe, instead of books from Canada folks should be pointed to Resonate, Jordon Cooper, Len Hjalmarson, Rob McAlpine, et al. Just a thought...
Posted by: Charlie Wear | December 18, 2005 at 02:59 AM
Great suggestion, Charlie. I think there are some books brewing up here, but none out that I know of. My book isn't about emerging church, so it doesn't qualify.
Peace,
Jamie
Posted by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci | December 18, 2005 at 05:54 AM
maybe EVERYONE should be pointed to web resources - they are more current, more plentiful, free or usually free, instantly acceessible, able to be aggregated, searched, datamined, commented on, talked back to, they are linked contextually with their author, they remain editable, they form part of the seminary resource library of the future, and so on
BUT . . . you cannot take them into the toilet.
Well . . you can actually, but who wants to drop their notebook accidently?
Posted by: andrew | December 18, 2005 at 08:23 AM
For Canada...
The Global House Church Movement by Rad Zdero
Posted by: Tim | December 18, 2005 at 04:02 PM
Being Church Where We Live by Ron McKenzie has some good insights on the relationship between ministry, community and the Kingdom of God. The ascension gifts down to earth and makes them practical in a missional environment.
Another good one from New Zealand
Posted by: Tall Slightly Overweight Kiwi | December 19, 2005 at 05:07 AM
Jon - regarding Africa - lots of great theologians (Lamin Sanneh) and reflective practitioners but not many books.
i will be in south africa in a few months and will be asking around to see what people are reading there.
Posted by: andrew | December 19, 2005 at 01:27 PM
I think the whole blog/book relationship is a great reason to be more intentional about the use of categories and tags. For instance, if you read my blog to get info on the emerging church, you'll have to wade through a lot of unrelated stuff, unless you use the appropriate category.
Also, there is an increasing number of online services offering hardcopies of blogs, such as qoop (dot com, still in beta, but will print directly from your blog engine) and Lulu (dot com, which requires a PDF). Anyone know of others?
Posted by: Justin Baeder | December 21, 2005 at 02:42 AM
You wrote: From Canada ? . . . You tell me.
Here is a Canadian webpage with a start at the definition of church which all who emerge should aspire to:
http://religioustolerance.org/fraser01.htm
For a book not quite along the same lines you may find this entry from Canada also interesting:
The Global House Church Movement by Rad Zdero PHD
It seems to me many who emerge simply want to excercise their authority in church instead of having it exercised on them. I prefer getting rid of all human powered authority and reaching out in prayer to Jesus Christ as the one true boss.
Posted by: Kirk Fraser | December 21, 2005 at 04:12 AM
i just ordered Rad's book - it had been on my wish list for some time and i needed a canadian nudge to buy it
thnx
Posted by: andrew | December 21, 2005 at 08:10 AM
Another list @
http://prodigal.typepad.com
Posted by: Paul Fromont | December 22, 2005 at 08:52 PM
Believe it or not I am a Canadian and I write books. Guess one is invisible in one's country or maybe Vancouver just doesn't count when it comes to being 'from Canada'. Who can tell!
Posted by: alan Roxburgh | July 29, 2006 at 12:23 AM
Al Roxburgh's book Reaching a New Generation is (IMHO) still one of the best books on emerging church - the way it blends missiology with real life practices among a church community.
Posted by: steve | July 29, 2006 at 06:41 AM
and its Canadian!!!!
[and thanks alan for the reminder]
Posted by: andrew (tall skinny kiwi) | July 29, 2006 at 07:03 AM
Or you might want to check out Al's new books, The Sky is Falling and The Missional Leader (written with Fred Romanuk.) Apparently, there's even a video about Al's new book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5af4SbBus
Or so I'm told. :-)
Posted by: Bill Kinnon | July 29, 2006 at 04:57 PM